What a weekend!

Wow! Spent the weekend at one of my favorite places in the world and got to share that place with my daughters and Girl Scout troop.  Too bad I shared it from the lodge since I spent the whole weekend sick! I have never, ever, ever been that sick and will be following up with my doctor to find out what I can be doing to prevent this (what I believe to be a gall bladder problem) from ever happening again.  I'm getting both sides of this--get it out now and don't take it out, but I will work with my medical professionals and make an informed decision that will be best for me.

That being said, the Mini Tornado was not happy with us being gone and was quite the monster when we got home. Once he wore himself out, he was back to the snuggly little bugger I know and love.  We hope to add a friend for him this week, I'm disappointed the kittens a friend has won't work (read-long-haired white cats with the Boss's navy blue uniforms...) but the shelter and a locally owned pet store have kittens available, so we're hopeful!

I was thrilled to arrive at the Girl Scout camp and see that the camp has not lost its beauty, although the pine beetles have taken away many of the trees.  The lodge has had some work done on it and it looks amazing!

While being sick, I didn't get the pictures I wanted, I did send my girls to take some, but they were more interested in critter droppings and sticks to get some of the shots of the beauty of the camp.  Here's hoping we go back next summer and I'm healthy!

 Be Happy! Be Healthy! Be sure to trust professionals with your health!!

Mini tornado

A friend suggested we name the kitten DC for Darn Cat.  I laughed, as this little man had been so mellow in the shelter the 3 times we stopped to see him.  HA! Mickey is a tornado and 2 pounds of mischief!

We love him to death, although these early mornings are killing me.  He thinks that we should be up and at it by 5:50 at the latest.  And my legs/sleep pants seem to be the favorite play toys.  Those little claws are like needles.

He's currently playing in a 12 pack of pop box.  He's grabbing the food he's dumped with his claws and pulling it inside.  

Giving him wet food is a hoot, he races back and forth from the fridge to his food area, spinning circles and talking up a storm.  One of my co-workers said a lot of the black kitties she sees come through the shelter tend to be part Siamese and I have to agree, both our black boys have been!

Big changes this week are on hold, no new kitties if we're camping this weekend and the major change is possibly not happening.

Short post, Wednesday was a train-wreck of a day...didn't even get a chance to tell my mom good-bye when she left.  Ah well, a long weekend at the Girl Scout camp I spent 7 summers at before kids should be a great time.  Can't wait to show my girls around and share some memories with them.  Loads of pictures to be shared next week.

Until then...

Be Happy! Be Healthy! Be sure to hug your 2 & 4 legged children!

Changes #1 and #2

Today my baby boy started his first job.  It was a bit of a tug on the heart-string to send him off this morning.  I am pleased to share that he came home with a smile on his face and so proud of himself.  When we went into town today to get supplies for change #2, he drove and treated Dizzy and I to ice cream.

Meet Change #2.  

We added a new member to the family today, a ten week old black kitten, name to be determined.  He's definitely got personality to spare and is going to keep us on our toes.  It has been awhile since we have had a baby in the house!  It did force me to clean up my yarn mess in the corner, as he seems to love yarn to play in or sleep on.  He's currently sleeping with the Boss, tucked in under his chin, same place he napped with me earlier.

It was a beautiful day today, happy solstice!  I ran errands with the boss (scored the 3 Lord of the Rings DVDs for under $4) this morning, adopted the kitty and then had to get some supplies, new food (the other food gives him room-clearing gas) and dinner for the 2-legged kids while the Boss was working this afternoon. 

Now we're hanging out with the kitten and watching Fringe.  Nice way to spend the longest day of the year!

Stay tuned, more changes on their way, looking forward to lunch with my brother, aunt, uncle and mom tomorrow.

Be Happy! Be Healthy! Be sure to snuggle with a cute kitten today!

Welcome summer!

Things are quiet right now. I even have control of the remote and some peace and quiet.

Softball is moving along merrily. Tink seems to be enjoying the catchers position and her older siblings were able to assist  with the team last night.  Kind of fun to have my son pitching, youngest batting and middle child as the back-up catcher (a necessity when you have kindergarten through 2nd graders trying to catch). Not much cuter than those little ones playing softball!

Loads of fun and we're already discussing next summer and maybe traveling teams...Oh, what have I gotten myself into????

Made it out to the garden today.  Very sad, most of the plants are yellowing and not growing.  Hoping with the start of summer this weekend and some sunshine and heat, that will change!

The one plant loving the weather is my peony bush behind the house.  I included the grill in the background for height comparison.

Stay tuned, we're moving and shakin' at this house and changes, they are coming!

Be Happy! Be Healthy! Be sure to play in the rain!

June showers bring what?

Yellow plants, for what I can see right now...We're in our annual 'no one really wants summer and sunshine' month here in Montana...Cold, rain and so disappointing after a long and cold winter.  Hoping the weatherperson is right and that we will actually see the 80 degree weather this weekend.

Dizzy finished her softball season.  It was not the winning season she hoped for, but she had a great time and is already talking about next season and whether or not she wants to 'redraft' or stay on the same team.  Should be interesting to see what she decides to do.

Tater is starting her season.  She absolutely loves it. This little girl is disappointed every day when she can't go to practice and see her team.  She's the kind of kid I wanted when I was coaching years ago!

Her room cleaning and re-organizing option isn't going as well as the reading and softball parts of the summer...She thinks cleaning out her closet means she can put it all in a tub next to her door and the closet is cleaner...

We did get her clothes contained to her dresser again, except for her sweatshirts. It's a slow process!

Dizzy's room project isn't going well either.  She got the cleaning part of it down, but the keeping it clean (and making her bed everyday--note Tater's above is made) isn't.

The biggest issue is the pile next to her door (bottom right-hand corner) that grows into her doorway.  Makes it tough for any of us to get into her room, but she's fine with that.  Oh, the pre-teen age years have been a lot of fun (NOT!).  This is going to be an adventure.

I am lost without my Tigger cat.  We all miss her dreadfully and are looking to find another kitten to fill our home and hearts.  I can't sit and watch television without an ache in my heart, missing my little friend who would snuggle with me while we watched.  Of course, I'm sure the new additions will decide not to want to sit with me, but they'd still be around.

Big changes are coming for our family in July.  Wait and see.  I'll post pictures of the garden next week when it isn't so cold outside (I'm a wimp and staying inside where it is marginally warmer--we shut our heat off a month ago and I'm trying not to turn it back on).  My hopes are that the real heat doesn't hit until after my blue flowers bloom in my front bed.  Our air conditioner sits right above it and tends to droop some of the plants...

Be Happy! Be Healthy! Be sure to smile some today!

Endings...or Beginnings

The last few weeks have given us a lot of endings.

Bean ended his Freshman year, ended his journey of the broken leg today with his final surgery to get hardware out of his leg and ended his no-driving life, now bearing his TELL and legally being able to drive my car....

Dizzy ended her Junior years of Girl Scouts, culminating with her receiving her Bronze Award, ended her Elementary school career with the Presidential Award for Academics (or something along those lines) and the American Legion Award and ended her second ever season in softball with a smile and promise to her coach to play next year.

Tater ended her second season of soccer with a smile and a bounce to her stride and ended her school year with over 85 points in the Accelerated Reader program. (she also ended her life as a child who had never taken a "selfie" last weekend...)

Our dear cat Tigger ended her life this last week, her health finally failing after 16 1/2 years in our family.

While we have had a lot of endings, there are some new beginnings as well...

Bean is beginning to drive and will be beginning to run again soon.

Dizzy is beginning her summer workouts for gymnastics and ready to begin her first year of middle school.

Tater is beginning her first season of softball and loves it.  She is really taking to the catchers position like her Papa Dave.

We'll begin a new life someday soon with a new pair of kittens, a first for my kids to have a baby animal in the house.

The garden is beginning well, everything is coming up nicely and I should have a crop of lettuce in a few weeks.  Can't wait!

I've even had a beginning with a workout routine.  I'm getting up earlier in the mornings and working out for a little while, easing into a routine and retraining my body.

For every ending, there is a new beginning.  I know it is often hard to see that sometimes, but watching for the window of opportunity.

The war on rodents

This is an old post that for some reason never was sent...As things are quiet on the home front, Tigger is still around and other than yours truly playing catcher at Tater's softball practice tonight, there is really nothing exciting to report.  Oh, 1 green bean plant is finally up and I did put in spinach and more beans with Tater's help, as well as a trio of acorn squash.  Think garden is mostly full, there's a little room in the middle, but I'm leaving extra vine room for the pumpkins I can't convince to grow outside the garden.  Bean's next surgery is a week from tomorrow and Dizzy finally got her grips, made it to a gymnastics practice and didn't get to do bars tonight.  Needless to say, she's not a happy camper!

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I sent Dizzy out to feed the dogs last night. 

A few minutes later I thought I heard someone yell so I checked it out.  You can just see our shed on the right-hand side of the picture and this is where we keep bikes, dog food and my gardening supplies.  Unfortunately, this is also where I put a bag of bird seed before the end of summer.  Not the best move, as we have had mice in the dog food barrel before...

So, the shed has a few mice enjoying the bird seed (it no longer resides in the shed) and evidently they attracted a neighbors cat who was lurking underneath the shed, hoping for a quick snack as they snuck out of whatever hole they were in.

So, I look outside and there is Dizzy, racing back towards the house, crying.  I was informed, in between sobs, that something had jumped out at her when she went to open the shed.  I held back the chuckle that threatened to erupt and went out to feed the dogs, where a rotten little mouse was sitting on the shelf right next to the door. 

Onwards to the next day...Trip to Walmart and purchased a pair of d-con boxes.  Put them in the shed, hearing the rustling in the old dog food bags we save for kennel clean-up when it isn't frozen to the ground.  Checked 12 hours later, no d-con left, but definitely some rustling going on.  I know this stuff is bad, don't slay me in the comments, but it works and with the nasty things the mice can carry, I wanted them gone and gone quickly.

Four more boxes of d-con and we had the shed rustle and gutsy mouse free.  I had to clean everything out (with a breathing mask and non-latex gloves) and found (without digging in some of the bags and some garbage that had accumulated) an even dozen. Also found some interesting tools and a sled.  Along with several old sprinklers, garden tools and an old hose.  Guess it was time to clean that bugger out!

Memories

Not a picture day, but a day of remembering. I'm coming to you today from my favorite spot on the couch with my writing buddy on my lap.  It hit me today that this is one of my final times to do so. No, I'm not stopping my blog, but my partner in crime isn't going to be around much longer.  Tigger is 16 years old and her health is failing quite rapidly. We have been having the 'do we take her to the vet' discussion for several days. So far, no, but she is getting close.

There is the sadness of our dear family member passing on, but the truth is, she has led a great life and we have been blessed to have her in our lives.  I can't tell you the number of cords she has chewed in half over the years, nor the number of dead birds and rodents she has left around for her poor dumb humans. She's cuddled with sick or sad kids and made sure we knew everything was ok in the house at 3am. Shes helped me cook dinner, always willing to clean up the floor(including the dorito I dropped one night) and been my lap warmer when its cold(or hot or really any temp).

It will be hard when she goes but I know in my heart that she will be waiting for me one day at the Rainbow Bridge.

Garden update...

I was out this morning, very disappointed that nothing but the lettuce had shown up yet, but thought I saw the starts of another pumpkin plant.  I wandered out tonight while the Boss, Bean and Dizzy were out shooting baskets (I passed after shopping this afternoon in my flip-flops and have several blisters on my feet...) to see if it was a plant and get it transplanted into the garden.

And I found...(some of these you have to look closely)

Corn

Cucumbers

Peas, with a bonus row where I forgot that I had 3 rows planted.  Fortunately that row is on the edge of my square foot plots, so shouldn't be a problem.

And the lettuce is up and easy to see now. I hope for the first harvest in the next 10 days.

Happy end of the weekend!